


Black As Crows

by astorii



Series: Exes & Woes [8]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: AU, Gen, KaiShin Exes AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-06-30 00:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19841302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astorii/pseuds/astorii
Summary: As Kaito would say:never forget your poker face.





	Black As Crows

**Author's Note:**

> I do not and never will own DCMK. T^T
> 
> *note: according to the Conan Arc Timeline, the Billion Yen Case occurs before the Detective Boys form ^ ^

His hands are stained with blood.  
  
From the sheer amount, he knows that he’s too late to save her. _And it hurts_. Still, he begs Hirota Masami—if that’s even her real name—to stay with him a little longer as he hangs on to the childish hope that she might pull through. Even as she’s choking on her own blood and spending all of her strength in maintaining an upright position, he tells her:  
  
“You’re going to be okay.” Conan doesn’t realize that he’s shaking until she turns her attention to him. He says it again and it sounds like he’s saying it more for his own sake than hers. And when she tries to form a word around the blood in her mouth, he tells her not to speak because her wound—  
  
—it’s useless now, isn’t it?  
  
Between whistling breaths, she says, “Unless… I’m mistaken, you’re the boy… who was at the detective agency.” His grim expression is enough of an answer for her. “How did you—?”  
  
“I used my tracker to follow you,” he whispers as if speaking any louder will knock the life out of her. As he explains his deductions up until this point, he can almost see the gears turning in her head as though she’s solving some sort of puzzle. And when she asks who he is, he doesn’t think to hesitate before saying, “Kudō Shinichi, detective.”  
  
Revealing his true identity seems to fit all the pieces in place. Looking away, she murmurs, “So, the rumors… were true. They tried to silence you too.” She chokes on her mirthless chuckle. One of her hands, bloodied and quivering, grasps his sleeve and he can _feel_ the blood seeping into the fabric. “Tried and failed. In the end, the Organization—”  
  
She dissolves into another fit of coughing, but Conan can only focus on the last word she managed to say.  
  
“Organization?” he prompts, fearing the answer she might give him. The pressure on his chest is _suffocating_. The memories are fresh in his mind despite how long it’s been since that night. He’ll never forget—never forgot those words or those eyes or how it felt to lay there while fearing that his death would become one of those unsolved mysteries he loves so much.  
  
(“ _—poison, newly developed by our organization, and claiming to be fully unable to be extracted from the body for the perfect crime._ ”)  
  
Masami nods as she begins to sway. Instinctually, Conan reaches out to steady her. She tells him of a large crime organization shrouded in mystery. ( _Please please please. Could this be the lead he’s been looking for?_ ) His small arms aren’t enough to stop her from falling back. Training her eyes on him, she continues.  
  
“All I know… is that Their color is black.”  
  
_Black. Black like—like Those guys?_  
  
“Yes, _black._ Those in the Organization prefer to—to wear clothes… black as crows.”  
  
He stares, wide-eyed, as flashes of black and cold eyes appear in his mind. Vaguely, her voice, growing softer with each word, fluttering against her lips and brushing his ears, but he doesn’t hear what she’s saying until one of her hands clasps around one of his own and he’s brought back to reality.  
  
“I’ll leave the rest to you,” she murmurs just after leaving him with the task to return the billion yen and the instructions needed to find it, “... little detective.”  
  
Her hand slips away, leaving his fist coated in her blood. And although he’s seen _worse_ , the picture in front of him is bordering on _nightmare fuel_. There goes his chances of soundly sleeping for the next month, he thinks hysterically. Conan takes a step back as she expels one last breath.  
  
_If only he had been faster_.  
  
It takes him a moment to realize that hurried footsteps are approaching. He trembles, unable to tear his eyes away from the body. His hands begin to go numb as he stares and stares and _stares and_ —  
  
“Conan-kun?”  
  
_Ran_.  
  
He welcomes her embrace but doesn’t make a move to return it lest he dirty her clothes with the blood on his hands. All thoughts of the Organization are pushed aside as he collapses in her arms from a momentary bout of weakness. He was so close— _so close_. After weeks and weeks of waiting for a case to crop up about Those men, he finally had one and—and…  
  
_She’s gone_.  
  
“It’s okay,” Ran whispers, her breath tickling his ear. She, too, is trembling. Somewhere in his mind, he realizes that she’s never seen him like this.  
  
For a moment, he pretends that it’s Kaito’s arms around him.  
  
“I know,” he croaks. Conan pulls himself out of her hold. As Kaito would say: _never forget your poker face_. He guards his anguish behind a mask of solemn indifference. “I know.”  
  
In the end, the only prints found on the gun were those belonging to Hirota Masami. Thus, the police ruled her death as a suicide motivated by the guilt of her crimes and Conan just resigned himself to letting that conclusion stand. But...  
  
Later, when he’s washing the blood off his hands, Conan can’t help but wonder just how many more lives Those guys are willing to take. He won’t forgive them. He’ll _never_ forgive them. Even if it’s the last thing he will have the privilege of doing, rest assured—he _will_ see to it that they atone for their crimes behind bars.  
  
If not for his sake, then he’ll at least do this for that woman.  
  
Maybe it’s a miracle that he met Hirota Masami. Perhaps it’s Fate. It hasn’t been too long since the shrink. Until she came to the agency, disguised as school girl looking for her father, he had no leads.  
  
And now he does.  
  
The case weighs heavily on his soul, but it fills him with renewed vigor. Another case will come along to bring him one step closer. And when it does…  
  
_They better be ready_.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay. My original plan? Create an installment following the Conan Arc and ending with the Black Star Heist. Then it switched to just jumping into the Black Pearl Heist, but by then I had already written this.
> 
> And then I remembered that Hattori exists (whOOPS) and that his introduction could change a lot in this au, so I decided to at least rewrite that. We’ll even see Kaito!!
> 
> I already have the first two chapters for the next installment written. It’ll be at least 10 chapters since I’ll be doing a rewrite of the Diplomat Murder Case. I’m undecided on whether to also include the Holmes Murder Case so I’d like to know if you’d like to see that as well!! ^ ^
> 
> I’m only asking because I’m afraid that rewriting too many episodes you’ve already seen would be boring.
> 
> If I do include the Holmes case, I’d assume the next installment would be ~15? I’ll be adding interludes so that, again, it’s not just episodes being rewritten. ^ ^


End file.
